Whitehall has failed to grasp the potentially devastating impact of corrosive cuts to public spending, the chief of Britain’s spending watchdog has said. This “radical” socio-economic surgery appears misguided and dangerous, he suggested.

In an exclusive
interview with the Financial Times, Sir Amyas Morse, who heads
the National Audit Office (NAO), accused government ministers of
pursuing irresponsible and ill-thought out economic
policies.

“If you’re going to do radical surgery it would be nice if
you knew where the heart was,” he said.

“You’re slightly more likely not to stick a knife in it by
mistake.”

Morse went on to argue that an “optimism bias” had
compelled ministers to implement policies, such as NHS reforms,
with little debate about their potential risky effects.

The NAO chief said civil servants and government officials lack
the information and perspective to discern if deep spending cuts
benefit the economy or just erode social services.

Morse said this problem is particularly evident with respect to
cuts to council budgets, which have badly dented social care
funding. He also suggested increased pressure on the state’s
health service was a serious concern.

His sharp critique surfaced two days before Chancellor George
Osborne is due to announce his sixth budget. Osborne is expected
to soften the depth of cuts in government departments this time
round in a bid to improve the Tory’s appeal to voters ahead of
May’s general election.

Nevertheless, the latest round of spending cuts is an extension
of the Tory’s long-term austerity agenda.

The Office for Budget Responsibility says the continued austerity
drive will see public spending as a percentage of GDP plunge to
its lowest level since the 1930s.

Reflecting on the prospect of another round of deep spending
cuts, Morse said: “If you’re going to go through much deeper,
more profound organizational cuts ... you need to understand what
you’re doing.”

Under Osborne’s austerity reforms, civil servants have been
reluctant to tackle problems or deficiencies associated with such
policies, he warned.

“What I observed is something that I will collectively
describe as the feather game. Because if you keep blowing the
feather hopefully it will land on someone else,” he added.

Morse said civil servants should not consider themselves
unaccountable for problems that emerge in local government. The
NAO chief conceded civil servants’ aversion to adding to their
responsibilities is understandable to a degree. But he suggested
an effort on their part to steer “towards the sound of
gunfire, rather than steering away from it,” would be
helpful.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies warns the chancellor’s planned
cuts are “colossal” – set to hit unprotected areas of
government spending with a 42 percent blow. This continued
austerity will prove catastrophic for an already besieged NHS and
intensify the local authority crisis. It will also heap
difficulty on military and police services that are buckling,
critics say.

Others suggest the chancellor plans to tweak expected cuts to
social spending, challenging the charge he will grind the state’s
social fabric down to 1930s levels.

The chancellor will devote a considerable proportion of
Wednesday’s budget speech to laying out measures a re-elected
Tory government would implement post May 7. Among the policy
proposals predicted to surface are a further round of welfare
cuts and increased inheritance tax relief.

The strategy of slashing budget deficits amid sluggish economic
growth has been questioned by the International Monetary Fund and
many economists worldwide. But Brits will likely face austerity
irrespective of who wins May’s general election.

Should Brits sanction a further five years of austerity by voting
the Tories back into power, Osborne’s long-term economic plan
will reach completion.

But even if the Conservatives lose, political analysts argue the
chancellor will still claim a victory of sorts.

They stress he has shifted the political compass of debate so far
to the right that a Labour government could not abandon austerity
in the next parliament even if it wanted to.